Today, many uninsured or underinsured Americans receive their care from publicly funded clinics and health providers across the country known as essential community providers (ECPs). Many of these providers do not require insurance or any payment.

For the last few decades, most federal funding for sex education has been dedicated to abstinence-only until marriage education. Abstinence-only education has not been shown to reduce teen sexual activity, pregnancy or Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

In 2008, virtually all reproductive health debates and decisions in the legislative and policy arenas took place against the backdrop of one of the most unforgettable presidential campaigns in history – one in which voters could not have been presented with a starker choice between candidates on reproductive health policy. When the dust had settled, the country had elected a pro-choice, pro-prevention President with a strong track record of support for women’s reproductive health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) included family planning as one of its “Ten Great Public Health Achievements in the 20th Century.” Rightfully so – widespread use of contraceptives has been the driving force in reducing unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and reducing the need for abortion in this nation.

The national family planning program, Title X of the Public Health Service Act, was established in 1970 with broad bipartisan support. The program provides federal funds for project grants to public and private nonprofit organizations to provide family planning information and services – services which improve maternal and infant health, lower the incidence of unintended pregnancy, reduce the incidence of abortion, and lower rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

The National Partnership for Women & Families is pleased to submit a statement for today’s hearing in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, “Domestic Abstinence-Only Programs: Assessing the Evidence.” Our statement highlights a few of the reasons – practical, public health, and ethical – to question continuing the public investment in ideologically driven abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.

Chlamydia remains the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, yet up to 90% of women and a large percentage of men with chlamydial infection are asymptomatic. If left untreated, chlamydia can cause severe health consequences, including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) – a leading cause of infertility.

As a group of leading scientists who have recently conducted research on adolescents, reproductive health, and abstinence-only education, we are writing to express our strong concern about increasing federal support for abstinence-only education (AOE) programs. This federal support includes monies going to states (Section 510 of the Social Security Act) and those going directly to community and faith-based organizations (the Community-Based Abstinence Education program).

The undersigned organizations are writing to ask that during conference negotiations on the FY 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education spending bill (H.R. 3043) you fund the Title X family planning program at the House-passed level of $311 million, a $28 million increase over FY 2007 funding.

We stand for healthy women and families. We stand for access to basic health care, including birth control, emergency contraception, sex education, STD testing and treatment, prenatal care, and abortion. we stand for medical privacy. We stand for women’s lives. We stand on moral ground.

Chlamydia remains the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, yet up to 90% of women and a large percentage of men with chlamydial infection are asymptomatic. If left untreated, chlamydia can cause severe health consequences, including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) – a leading cause of infertility.